Saftu To Protest During Budget Speech Day

The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) says it will be marching outside Parliament on Wednesday, during the budget speech by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni.

On its Facebook page, the union has posted that it will be supported by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) in the Western Cape and other Saftu affiliates.

The union says: “ The march is to demonstrate against joblessness which continues to plague the working class majority. This scourge is about to worsen with the announcement of the unbundling of Eskom. The ANC government can not be believed when they claim that unbundling will not lead to privatization and retrenchments. They have turned lying into an art form and the working class will be making a fatal mistake if it believes this propaganda.”

The union continues to say: “The ANC government has always had an agenda to privatize State Owned Entities and Eskom in particular. They continuously harp on the wage bill at Eskom because the expectation is that the working class will pay for this restructuring through job losses. They are following the script which has been written for them by White Monopoly Capitalist institutions like the World Bank and others, who demand that massive retrenchments must take place at Eskom in order to guarantee efficiency in the running of the SOE.”

Saftu also states: “NUMSA also supports the General Strike called for by our federation SAFTU on the 26-27 March, 2019. The strike is to demand jobs, a living wage for all, and prosecution for all those embroiled in corruption. The working class must be united in driving an agenda in its own interest. We cannot expect the greedy Capitalist ANC-led government to get away with continuing to promote economic policies which will continue to enrich the wealthy elite, and enslave the working class majority and the poor. We must fight for a Socialist South Africa if the working class is to experience genuine freedom!”

The protesters will gather at Kaizergracht, outside Parliament at 10am.